The Missing Link of the CIty

This is the project wich achieved nomination in Upgrade : Continuity and Change contest

The history of Bucharest city is marked by various moments when continuity has been altered by radical changes.

During the middle of 1950`s a new urban axis into the very core of our city has been created : Ion C. Brătianu Boulevard.

This urban axis is vital for the needs of a contemporary capital, but affects the historical center which has been splitted in two: the West side, with Lipscani street and Curtea Veche Museum and the East side, with Saint George Piazza and Bărăția church, where the urban life and activities are missing.

How can we link the values of the Past to the identity of Present?
We cannot turn back time nor can we recreate the buildings of yesterday

Instead we can try to integrate the historical center in the city life of today without losing the functional and visual axis of the I.C Bratianu Boulevard.

My intervention tries to do this by taking the car circulation one level down, then marking the absence of the buildings with voids and so defining a network of ground and underground walkways that link historical monuments, basement ruins, commercial functions, public spaces (Unirii Park, Saint George Piazza) and a major transportation hub, the Unirii subway station

It is like an artery that irrigates the urban tissues. It celebrates the diversity of the boulevard as a section through different layers of time, where the moving vehicles and the walk of the people animate the urban space